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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455777">mercy kill</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeehonk/pseuds/yeehonk'>yeehonk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M, Pre-Established Relationship, Suicidal Ideation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 07:07:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,099</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26455777</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeehonk/pseuds/yeehonk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>One last night with a lover and the introspection that comes with it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jeritza von Hrym/Hubert von Vestra</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>mercy kill</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>based off a piece of art i did of them please enjoy. thank you to bree for editing this for me xoxo</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was always in the plan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Justice had to be brought. There would come a day when people would demand it; he had done far too much damage to be allowed pardon and redemption. He was beyond saving from the moment they took him in and allotted them a spot within their ranks. Since then, he had only caused more tragedies and taken more lives, even under the name of the Empire and despite the asset he had been to them in the war. He had always sought out </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span>, attempting to quench a thirst that would never be sated, not until he was killed himself. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So it had always been in the plan to execute Jeritza. Publicly. Under his former name, Emile von Bartels. It was to be staged as though the Empire was unaware of who he was. What he had done to his family. But they would take full responsibility for what he had done past that, for what he had done as the Death Knight. People would want him to answer for his crimes, and Edelgard was aware of this. She had planned it out long in advance, with Hubert’s advising of course. It was in her own words that the execution would be public, rather than carried out in secret by the Emperor’s Shadow. And he had agreed. It was for the best, after all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What hadn’t been in the plan was how deeply Hubert would come to care about Jeritza.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them were at each other’s throats since the first meeting. Quite literally in some cases. They were too similar. It was uncomfortable, to be confronted with someone so similar to yourself, to understand how deep your devotion to someone else went that you would do whatever it took to ensure their success. For them to be safe, happy. To sacrifice your own self for that cause. To bloody your hands for them. But they also did not mind bloodying their hands, the thrill of it. While Hubert never reached the depths that Jeritza had sunk to in the matter, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>understood</span>
  </em>
  <span> it. Perhaps he could have gone as low as the other man as well, had he been abandoned by his tether and left alone for as long as the other man had been. It was where their similarities parted, but with it brought understanding between them both.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Though the understanding took time. It took time to build, and it took a push to reach. It took a war to push them further together, no longer separated by playing different roles in the scheme of things. They were both placed as generals in the imperial army and were to work alongside one another in this war. Neither enjoyed this at first, that much he knew. When he looked back at that time, it was funny. It felt as if neither of them wanted to admit that they were similar, and pressed each other’s buttons to keep their distance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or maybe they were simply both afraid of what their understanding and similarity would bring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Being afraid to love wasn’t unnatural, especially for two people who were in the positions they were. And it hadn’t started as love</span>
  <span>—</span>
  <span>it had started as a tensioned string snapping between them, and a dive into that desire for intimacy. But the idea of </span>
  <em>
    <span>love</span>
  </em>
  <span> being where they wound up was something that stayed in the back of his mind as soon as they began to grow closer. As soon as that string snapped. It wasn’t in the plan. It was highly divergent from the plan. And with that knowledge came an added fear, one to exacerbate his anxieties of even the </span>
  <em>
    <span>idea</span>
  </em>
  <span> of falling in love. Because maybe with someone else, someone who wasn’t Jeritza, falling in love, slowly, over time, wouldn’t be a bad idea. It could be nice. It could maybe lead to a family, not that he desired one necessarily, or a happy ending.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But falling in love with Jeritza was to end in ruin. Because it was part of the plan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Leaned against the headboard of his bed, Jeritza’s weight against his chest felt like a stone. He looked peaceful, something that he had gotten to see more than anyone else, but still knew to be a rarity. He could stare at him like this for hours. Instead, his own expression grew blank and stony as a slab of marble as his eyes were drawn down to the blood on his own hands. There was surely blood on his shirt as well, given how Jeritza was laid on him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was part of the plan for Jeritza to die, for him to go out in a public execution, and Hubert knew that. It was set for a week from now. Tomorrow, they were to take him into custody and get things ready. But Hubert had fallen in love with Jeritza. And if he were to die, it would be by his own hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t as if Jeritza was against the notion. From their time together Hubert had become well acquainted with how badly the other man wanted to die. It was subtle, and he may not have realized it himself until pointed out, but the ways in which he fought and threw himself into battle were telling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So when he sank his knife into Jeritza’s chest just an hour before, it was only a mild surprise the words out of his mouth were a quiet “Thank you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Blood dripping from his hands, it stained straw blonde hair with each drop. Jeritza’s breathing had stopped about thirty minutes ago, and now his body was no more than dead weight against Hubert’s own, but he hadn’t moved from the position they were in, nor had he looked up from his hands. It was a mercy killing. To save him from the demon in his heart he so often spoke of and who Hubert had faced so many times himself. And it was a selfish killing, to let himself bring about the end of the one person he loved.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After a few more minutes of watching the blood drip, he carefully wrapped his arms around Jeritza’s torso, leaning his head against Jeritza’s and closing his eyes. In the morning he would have to report to her highness and spin some lies about what had happened. About how it was unavoidable and in self defense. Which she would know to be wrong, but to those that cared, it would seem very real.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For now, he settled in for one last rest with his love.</span>
</p>
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